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Safe, secure soccer stadia

Football fans support their teams with passion - and often the evidence of this emotion is shown clearly on the faces of excited fans throughout the world. As thousands of keyed-up fans rush into a stadium, the pre-game emotions rise to a fever pitch and a lot of pushing and jostling for the best positions takes place

Tragically, history has shown us that this is where it can all start to go dreadfully wrong. Poor crowd control, over-filling of stadia, and neglect of the construction has cost at least 1200 fans their lives since the 1960s, with over 3500 suffering injury of some kind. Sadly, it is the youth who are mostly affected - at Hillsborough the majority who died were under 30, with more than a third being under 20. About a third of these injuries and deaths have taken place in Africa since 1970.

The Football World Championship is undoubtedly the world's biggest sport event next to the Olympic Games. With South Africa's award of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, it is essential that security has top priority, and that the safety and security of the officials, players and fans are never compromised.

The products of Bosch Security Systems have recently contributed to this guarantee of security at the Olympic Games in Munich and Athens, at the UEFA Cup Final in Portugal, as well as clubs throughout Europe including Leeds United and Inter-Milan.

With careful monitoring of potential 'hot spots' by CCTV, security staff are able to identify and control events before they become emergencies. A clear and easily understood evacuation system can calm the crowds before panic starts, and under normal circumstances can play music and announcements throughout the stadium.

Fire detection systems can act as an early warning of impending disaster, and can trigger automated evacuation messages, leaving safety personnel free to assist with crowd control and evacuation.

All of the products also carry the full support of an international project team who have a wealth of experience in designing not only stadia, but a variety of large turnkey projects where public safety is of vital importance. Public safety is not only an issue inside the stadia, but also embraces the safe journeys to and from the stadia when the game is over.

This projecting division also offers full integration with products supplied by other companies, and we work closely with many large corporations who have the products needed to complement our offer and provide a total safety and security package.

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